UN team prepares for on-site inspections in Syria

United Nations: The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is reviewing additional information received from Syria on its chemical weapons stockpiles to conduct on-site inspections, a UN spokesperson said on Friday.

The OPCW Technical Secretariat received information additional to the disclosure on the chemical weapons programme which Syria submitted on Sep 21, a news agency reported citing UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky.

“The OCW secretariat, together with the UN, has formed a team tasked with overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons production facilities. The joint team has also made initial progress following the first working day of meetings with Syrian authorities,” Nesirky said.

“The team hopes to begin on-site inspections and the initial disabling of equipment within the next week,” he said. The exact timing depends on the outcome of the technical groups established with the participation of Syrian experts.

"Documents handed over on Wednesday by the Syrian government look promising, according to team members," Nesirky told reporters. "But further analysis, particularly of technical diagrams, will be necessary and some more questions remain to be answered. These groups are working on three areas which are important to the mission's success, namely security, logistics and field support,” he added.

The UN fact-finding group has confirmed the use of chemical weapons on Aug 21 outside the Syrian capital of Damascus, but the inspectors did not say who used them.